Haiti

After six days of waiting at Haiti's border, Mario Polanco was losing patience with the red tape holding up his truck full of earthquake relief supplies. Polanco drove the equipment for the International Committee of the Red Cross 11 hours from a port in the Dominican Republic, only to have the Haitian customs agent find one problem after another with his paperwork.(..)Several WFP trucks have been delayed by a requirement imposed this week for all paperwork to be scanned and sent via e-mail from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince, according to Elder Reyes, a WFP logistics specialist.

Today in New York, donors will be asked to provide $11.5 billion to help Haiti recover from the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. Since the U.S. government has already provided more than $700 million in assistance - a number that will likely rise - some might ask: Why should we give more?(..)Food is being distributed in massive quantities; the World Food Program estimates it has reached more than 4 million people since Jan. 12.

Even before the January earthquake, international aid agencies played a huge role in Haiti. But the United Nations and some relief organizations say that's one of the reasons Haiti remains so entrenched in poverty.(..)The largest aid agency operating in Haiti is the United Nations. U.N. bulldozers are clearing fields to make camps for people to live in. The World Food Program distributes food.

United Nations aid agencies are urging the international community not to forget Haiti's humanitarian needs, while shifting focus to the overwhelming need to rebuild that earthquake-shattered country.(..)The World Food Program agrees that support for humanitarian programs must run parallel to reconstruction aid. Spokeswoman Emilia Casella says the organization is starting to move from the emergency phase to a longer-term food security strategy.

Near the centre of Jacmel, just a few hundred metres off the main street Baranguilla Ave., more than 5,000 people live in Pinchinat, the city’s former soccer field and now its largest tent city. It started to take shape two days after the quake when the poorest of the poor who survived built makeshift shelters out of whatever they could scrounge from the remains of their homes and what they could find on the street.(..)The World Food Program brings food; Unicef water; and a medical clinic was established.

On Jan. 12 at 4:53 p.m., the most destructive earthquake ever recorded on the small island nation of Haiti occurred and created wide spread devastation to more than three quarters of a million people.(..)Coordination went beyond the normal Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Homeland Defense agencies to include the Haitian Government, the United Nations World Food Programme, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of State, and countless other nations, just to name a few.

Russia will airlift food and other prime necessities to earthquake-stricken Haiti as part of an ongoing international humanitarian effort. The aid is being made available as part of this country’s voluntary contributions to the UN’s WFP and other international organizations. Russia and the WFP inked a pertinent accord on the fourth of this month. UN experts see Russia as a leading contributor to global food security.

A navy commander has told of his crew's delight after delivering aid to earthquake hit Haiti.(..)While there the ship's crew carried out two urgent tasks for the World Food Programme.(..)The second task at Anse a Veau involved a community which had been completely cut off by land slips and floods, and had survived on occasional air drops from the World Food Programme.

Just days after the earthquake struck in Haiti, Blogcritics writer Kate Kennon forwarded me an e-mail from Dr. Pilar Martin. This was an urgent message about the Rose Orphanage in Port-au-Prince needing aid. I forwarded this message to my contacts at the World Food Programme (WFP) and they took action quickly. David Orr of WFP reported to me that Rose was included in a series of deliveries targeting orphanages.

President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Congress on Wednesday for $2.8 billion in emergency funds to provide for costs associated with relief and reconstruction for Haiti, after its devastating earthquake on Jan. 12.